Today's Globe: MassHealth payments, paralysis bypass in monkeys, infant death rate, nicotine and breast cancer, X Prize for healthcare, cancer treatment coverage

Hospitals and doctors who provide care for MassHealth patients will receive lower reimbursements for the services they provide to MassHealth patients as part of Governor Deval Patrick's plan to slash the state budget by more than $1 billion.

Monkeys taught to play a computer game were able to overcome wrist paralysis with an experimental device that could lead to new treatments for patients with stroke and spinal cord injury.

Infant deaths in the United States continue to surpass most other rich nations, stalling at the same level from 2000 through 2005 while other countries improved, government researchers said.

Nicotine, whether absorbed by smoking cigarettes or inhaling second-hand smoke, may promote tumor growth and the spread of breast cancer, a study found.

The California-based X Prize Foundation, which helped launch the first private manned space flight in 2004, is teaming with the insurer WellPoint Inc. to try to fix the US healthcare system. The companies have unveiled an open competition to devise solutions that improve healthcare cost and quality, and they're dangling a prize of at least $10 million for the winner.

"Imagine you have been diagnosed with cancer and need chemotherapy or radiation treatments, but regardless of what your doctor prescribes, your insurance plan limits the overall expense or number of times you can receive the treatment," John R. Seffrin and Donald J. Gudaitis of the American Cancer Society write on the op-ed page. "This frightening and dangerous scenario is not hypothetical; it is now playing out in Massachusetts. The Massachusetts Connector Board is scheduled to vote tomorrow on potential changes to Minimum Creditable Coverage, which is the most basic coverage that an individual must have to satisfy the state's individual mandate."